Six and Two
by Rap541
Summary: What do you do when everything falls apart


"Get the whores and the rest of the trash out of this office," Six waved her hand imperiously at Baltar's entourage. The Cylons quickly made short work of that. Gaeta managed to choke down the bile rising in his throat as he pushed Baltar to a chair. He would go, he didn't know where, and hope that he could somehow mitigate some of the damage he had helped cause.

Or he could put a gun to his head. Sweet release. He was certain, just based on the sounds he could hear through the ship walls, that he wouldn't be the first one. He had been a fool, a naïve fool, and look where it had led all of them. It was ambition and anger that had led him down to the surface of New Caprica. Anger that he had done the right thing, the only thing that a decent lawful person could do when faced with the tampering of votes, and yet he was somehow the bad guy for following the law. Admiral Adama hadn't said anything… but it was obvious that he would have preferred to ignore it. Tigh hadn't been punished, and suddenly there were a lot of comments on how a tactical officer was no longer necessary. There would never be another promotion, he would never get his own ship, not even one of the rattle traps, and meanwhile the admiral's son who hated command got to keep the other battlestar. Baltar asked for him, to be an aide, military advisor, and why wouldn't he want to be where he was wanted? At least he had been able to stop Baltar from killing people.

And putting a gun to his own head wasn't going to help anyone. He would leave, he decided as he went to the door, following the rest of the staff, look up the other Galactica people and see what could be done. If anything. They were well and truly frakked and it was his fault.

A hand grabbed him. It was the blonde Cylon, Six. The one that **knew** Baltar. The one that looked like Shelly Godfrey. It suddenly dawned on him that not only had Baltar just sold the human race out, but that it wasn't the first time. I've been a complete fool, he thought grimly as the Cylon looked at him. If she were to kill him where he stood, it was better than he deserved simply for being such an idiot.

"Not you," the Cylon said easily. She pulled him back into the room, her grip vice like. The one that looked like Sharon tittered. The blonde, Six, glared at her. The part of him that was still willing to look for weaknesses wondered about that.

"He's just my assistant," Baltar said weakly. The man grabbed for the bottle of ambrosia. Gaeta forced down the rush of anger he felt. He wasn't just an assistant. He had made the entire government work. Baltar had just wanted to walk about giving orders. He had been the one to deal with the Quorum, the unions, the people who needed things… It wouldn't be good to openly seethe though. He had done enough of that already. They were now an occupied nation. The last thing the enemy needed to know was that they weren't united. Baltar took some pills with his drink. " Leave him alone, he's just my errand boy for god's sake."

"Gauis, I won't need you to talk." Six glared at him. To the Sharon and the other Cylons, she said, " You know your assignments. The president will need… a new assistant. Send one of the Eights. They seem to match his current preference." She turned to Gaeta. He was still clenching his hands at his sides to keep from throttling Baltar for the errand boy crack. It hurt, it hurt a lot. The Cylon looked him over. " You will come with me." She kept her grip on his arm as she led him out of the room and down the hallway.

I'm going to be killed, he thought as she pulled him into a small office. He supposed it was sad that he felt so relieved. The Cylon looked at him intently. She seemed both amused and sad. " You have no idea why you're here, do you, Lt. Gaeta?"

"You want to use me for something." That seemed obvious. " It's Mr. Gaeta, by the way. I resigned my commission." To help build a new world that was now as dead as Caprica. Just his luck to be picked as head tool of the new regime. The gun in his quarters suddenly looked very good.

She laughed. " No, Mr. Gaeta." She let go of him. " I want to set you free. You have met a Six before, haven't you?"

"Yes… Shelly Godfrey." She was trying to trick him in some way, of course. Like Shelly Godfrey had, with her incessant requests to be alone with him. Only when she had finally cornered him, she had… begun speaking nonsense. He'd broken away, and it had convinced him beyond a doubt that Godfrey was somehow not who she had said she was.

At least he had been right there.

" The signs are all over you. She didn't finish, but she tried. We don't normally fail." Six smiled at him. It was creepy and frightening. She pushed him down into a chair. He didn't protest. She was very strong, and deep down he wasn't exactly worried about dying. He was suddenly glad he'd never had kids.

"What I am going to do is going to make you feel a lot better," she said in a soothing voice. As if there was a choice on the table, he thought darkly. It was clear that she was going to do whatever it was that she intended. She held him down with one hand, and used the other to grab him by the neck and forced him to look directly at her. " Don't struggle," she warned. " This doesn't have to hurt."

"That's… very easy for you to say, considering the situation," he said.

She ignored him. " You are going to look into my eyes and listen very carefully to each word I say." That wasn't going to be difficult, he realized with dawning horror. He was pinned. She smiled again. "Cirrus. Socrates. Particle. Decibel. Hurricane. Dolphin. Tulip." She waited a moment. "How do you feel now?"

What he felt was… indescribable. It was as though every thought in his head had magically sped up and brilliantly lit. He blinked, and everything was more colorful, and sharper and more distinct. Every nerve cell in his body felt magically alive. He pushed her off, feeling a sudden, maddening rush of physical power. " What did you do to me?" he whispered.

He could guess.

"I activated you, Number Two." Six stepped away from him. " The Six you met was supposed to activate you and didn't. You're in danger, you know."

" What?" He shook his head. While he felt indescribably better than he ever had, he also felt like he was going to throw up. " Aren't… aren't I one of the gang?" He was, of course. That much was suddenly so clear. He was a Cylon. It was both sickening and exhilarating.

Six watched him carefully. " You're a sleeper agent and you have spent far more time under cover than any of us. You will need to be very careful. Your behavior will be monitored very carefully." She waited a moment. " The others don't know that I planned to activate you. We had agreed to leave you in your human persona, so that the number two model would be protected in case our plan to contain humanity fails."

" Then… why?" What she described made sense. There were only twelve models, he knew that from his research and from… just knowing. It wasn't safe to reveal all of the models. A back up plan was always necessary.

"Do you want to join us?" She asked it matter of factly.

"No." He wanted to do anything but. The image of the gun in his quarters rose up in his mind. That was one way to solve the problem. Cylons died from gunshots. He knew that. Then again, he also knew that they didn't really die, they just woke up in new bodies. He didn't really have the option of not joining them. He was one of them after all.

" Good." Six stepped in closer to him. " There's a faction that feels this was not the best decision. You would not be permitted to maintain a role in the human government anyway, there are too many among us who consider the inactivated as potentially dangerous."

"Why?" He felt far too shaky to be dangerous.

"We become too human. Your model rarely succumbs but you've been here too long. Now here's what you need to do. You will continue to be Felix Gaeta. I will report to my compatriots that your human persona has held admirably. You will go to the lower deck of this ship and explain to the Number Eight there that your duties have been terminated and that you've been reassigned to the education program. She'll give you an ID. Then you walk out of this settlement."

"And then what?" It felt like she was speaking too fast even though he was positive she was truly going slow enough for a child.

" I don't know," she said. " Maybe you'll become a teacher. Maybe you'll join the resistance that is sure to form. If you're smart, you will run as far and as fast as you can. If you stay around us, one of us will pick up on your activated status eventually. Hiding from humans is much easier than hiding from your own kind."

As what she was saying sunk in, he felt himself getting angry. " What… what where you thinking? If you **knew **I was a Cylon but that I would be at risk then why did you activate me? I didn't need to know this… I was just going to…." He stopped, remembering what his plans had been.

"You were going to commit suicide in some fashion. When you woke up, you would most likely be unmanageable. After a few days of listening to your pathetic denial and angry ranting, the decision would be made to download your consciousness into a hard drive. You would exist only in that box. I trust that doesn't sound pleasant." Six made it sound like a forgone conclusion.

And he realized she was right. The implications of being a sleeper agent crashed through his mind. There had been problems reincarnating the others. New ideas would bring new problems… problems the Cylons had probably never considered, or had to consider. "This invasion… it was because of a sleeper agent who tried to change things. Wasn't it?"

"Perhaps," she shrugged," And perhaps our people are in so much turmoil now, that even a pliable Number Two would be boxed. So you need to leave if you want to continue existing outside of a metal cage. There is some dissent but not enough. Even if I hadn't activated you, one of the Threes would see that you were dealt with."

"Dealt with?" He was beginning to regain his calm.

Six shrugged again. " The Two model must be protected. A reason would be found to have Felix Gaeta executed. You would wake up and be assessed and as I said, boxed. Dealt with. The humans would not be allowed to know the truth." She gestured to the door. " We're done talking. I'm giving you a chance that most of our kind never get. You can choose your fate. Go out and live among the humans. Or tell everyone you're a Cylon."

"But you want me to go out among the humans. Join the rebellion that's sure to form." Which suggested her motives weren't entirely pure. " Why?"

For an instant, her face hardened. " If none of us are free to chose, Number Two, then how can we be certain we're right? I am setting you free. Maybe it will change nothing. Maybe it changes everything." She walked over to the door and opened it. " You'll find we have little patience for complaining, Mr. Gaeta. You are no longer needed in your current capacity. Judging by the dismal state of this colony, I'm sure you have at least menial skills that can be used. Report to Number Eight on the lower deck. You'll be given a job there."

He stood up. He was still disorientated, in shock most likely. He was going to pass, at least for the next few minutes, as a badly scared human being. " But what about…."

"Go now, Mr. Gaeta. You're dismissed." She pushed him out the door and slammed it in his face. As he walked down to the lower deck and stood in line for an ID, he could see that he wasn't the only one on the staff being turned out. Of course, he was likely the only one who felt strangely exhilarated at the prospect of a new life spent helping his people, escape the tyranny they lived under. He wasn't yet certain which people he was going to help.

But Six was right. He was free to choose.


End file.
